Kosovo – EU trade relations: a dynamic panel poisson approach

To inform policymaking following trade liberalization between Kosovo and the EU within the framework of the Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA), we specify a gravity model to investigate Kosovo’s trade in goods with 28 EU countries over the period 2005–2013. We reconcile competing methodological requirements by using a dynamic Poisson approach to estimation. Together, persistent trade patterns and an unfavourable combination of demand and supply elasticities suggest that trade liberalization in isolation is not sufficient to promote exports but may need to be incorporated within a wider policy and institutional framework. In addition, our findings suggest that trade costs should be a particular focus for policy: distance has a big negative influence on Kosovo’s exports to EU countries; while diaspora communities promote Kosovo’s exports to EU markets, most likely because they offset trade costs.     

Money Pools in the Americas: The African Diaspora’s Legacy in the Social Economy

Money pools are ancient African traditions that speak to the functionality of getting things done by a historically oppressed group of people. The analysis for this study is based on 583 interviews in five Caribbean countries: Haiti, Grenada, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, and Guyana. African traditions of collectives reveal that Black people have long had money pools that focused on helping people thrive in commerce, including during the hard times of slavery and colonization. This research argues that throughout the Caribbean indigenous banking systems—with localized names such as susu, partner, meeting-turn, box-hand and sol—are long-standing ancient traditions that historically and currently are taking a bold stand against exclusionary financial systems. African-Caribbean people have an important legacy on the social economy through money pools. The ways in which persons of African descent organize in the social economy is vital to unravelling the market fundamentalist view that there is only a singular way to do business in society.     

Network Effects in International Migration: Education versus Gender*

In this paper, we analyze the impact that networks have on the structure of international migration flows. In particular, we investigate whether diaspora externalities are different across education levels and gender. Using new data that include both dimensions, we analyze the respective impact that networks have on the proportion of each category of migrant. Therefore, in contrast to the preceding body of literature on the macro determinants of international migration, we can identify the factors that influence the selection in terms of skills and in terms of gender. We find that network effects vary by education level, but not by gender.     

Leadership effectiveness and motivation in Africa and the African Diaspora (LEAD): An introduction

The LEAD research project was developed in order to broaden management research in areas such as Africa. This special issue brings together the early findings of the research team. The present article reviews the literature and discusses the importance of understanding organizational leadership and motivation in under researched areas of the world. We explain the use of both emic (Delphi Technique and focus groups) and etic (large scale survey) research and describe the LEAD project and methodology in detail. Here we advocate the use of emic and etic research, and also consider the practical realities of using such approaches. Copyright © 2014 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The implementation of a strategic state in a small country setting—the case of the ‘Scottish Approach’

ABSTRACT

This paper is a case study of the establishment of the Scottish Approach to Public Services. This strategic approach to public services was developed through three key activities: reorganization of the Scottish Government; creation of Scotland Performs and the National Performance Framework; and significant investment in leadership development. The research comprised of 11 élite interviews with both current and former civil servants within the Scottish Government. Interviews sought to develop an understanding of the nature and rationale for the Scottish Approach, to explore implementation of the Scottish Approach, and to posit what lasting impact may result from this form of ‘strategic state’ in Scotland. There is a major gap in the academic literature in terms of empirical studies of the strategic state and this paper addresses this gap by presenting the context and background to implementation of a strategic state in a small country setting.     

Marginal Analysis of Income Mobility Effects by Income Source with an Application to the Agricultural Policy Mix

The Note makes novel use of a decomposition of the Shorrocks mobility index by income source to identify the impact on farm income mobility of a marginal change in each component of income. An empirical application shows that a revenue‐neutral change in the balance of agricultural protection between market‐based support and direct payments would not have reduced the variability of relative farm incomes in Scottish agriculture.     

The Scottish Highland Games: evolution,development and role as a community event

This article provides an in-depth review of the Highland Games as an event that has achieved worldwide recognition, staged not just in Scotland but across the globe where Scottish Diasporas exist, although the focus here is on Scotland. Highland Games events are complex to categorise and conceptualise considering their multi-layered nature and scope, encompassing a multitude of activities each based on diverse local histories and traditions. The article commences with a detailed historical analysis of the Highland Games in Scotland to illustrate the distinctiveness and uniqueness of this type of event. A review of the event literature follows to illustrate the complexities and problems that conventional event typologies pose for seeking to classify or categorise the Highland Games, emphasising the community basis of such events as a starting point for understanding this phenomenon. The article reports the results of an empirical study of Highland Games events in Scotland and addresses a number of the current concerns and debates associated with the staging of Highland Games, including the challenges that non-profit Games organisations face in continuing the community tradition of event hosting. One particular issue that features is an acknowledgement of the dangers posed by the more commercial priorities of contemporary event management to the rich cultural heritage that underpins the Highland Games which could easily become neglected or even eradicated through more professional organisation.     

Bounded Tourism: Immigrant Politics,Consumption, and Traditions at Plaza Mexico

Conceived and owned by Korean investors, the shopping mall Plaza Mexico in Southern California embodies a unique case of invention and commodification of traditions for locally-bound immigrants and US citizens of Mexican descent, showing the force of the contemporary processes of deterritorialisation and reterritorilisation of identities and the recreations of imagined conceptions of homeland. The Plaza is a unique architectural recreation of Mexican regional and national icons that make its patrons feel ‘as if you were in Mexico’. Plaza Mexico produces a space of diasporic, bounded tourism, whereby venture capitalists opportunistically reinvent tradition within a structural context of constrained immigrant mobility. While most of the contemporary theory of tourism, travel and place emphasise the erosion of national boundaries and the fluidity of territories, the case of Plaza Mexico brings us to appreciate this phenomenon and its opposite as well – the strengthening of national borders and their impact on the (in)mobility of millions of individuals.     

From Brighton beach to blogs: exploring food-related nostalgia in the Russian diaspora

This research presents a qualitative exploration of food-related nostalgia experienced by individuals from Russia and the former Soviet Union in the context of diasporic waves. By varying time and space dimensions associated with nostalgia, the analysis is conceptualized around three “locations”: (1) Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States, (2) Brighton Beach, New York, and (3) cyberspace. Weblogs, demonstrated here to be objects of inquiry, are analyzed according to their nostalgia content, social connections, and community interaction. Nostalgic evocation through traditional cuisine is evident in all three settings. Personal, interpersonal, and cultural nostalgia are apparent in web content, demonstrating a technological role in the creation, sharing, and dissemination of nostalgia. Implications of the study relate to the sociology of food and interdisciplinary food studies, culinary tourism, online and offline marketing, and product distribution into ethnic and international markets.